If losing prospective customers weren’t enough of a motivator, Google will
now penalize websites that aren’t optimized for smartphones and tablets.
Once your website is up to snuff,
evaluate your content marketing efforts, too.

3. Rely on long-tail key phrases.

Keywords are useful, but be strategic when you use them.

Long-tail keywords are three- or four-word phrases that consumers use to
find the solutions your products and services offer. These are highly
specific and have less competition, so they can boost your rank higher than
less-niche keywords will.

4. Create outstanding content.

Search engines’ algorithms are focusing more on how good a piece of content
is than the number of keywords it has. Ask yourself if your writing
addresses your audience’s needs, and make sure to include plenty of data
and facts.

5. Repurpose content.

Your older blog posts can still make a splash and increase website traffic
with a little cajoling. Select articles, visuals and videos that you can
edit to make current, and share them again and again.

When choosing keywords and phrases, consider conversational language your
consumers are probably using to search for your products and services. This
will become more important as more consumers use voice search to find
things online.

8. Go secure.

Using “https” safeguards connections and information on your website, and
search engines prefer these over non-secure websites.

9. Boost your social media presence.

The more useful content you share on social platforms—along with helpful
interactions with consumers—the more traffic you can bring to your website
via link clicks.

10. Don’t solely focus on Google.

Google isn’t the only search engine that can affect your SEO. You can also
boost your online presence by ranking high in search results from Bing and
Yahoo.

11. Provide great experiences.

User experience and effective SEO now go hand in hand. A website that
easily enables visitors to find what they need and keeps their attention
for more than a few seconds goes a long way in making you stand out online.